Yesterday was The Big Storm. It was a big storm for other people, just not for us. We got a few inches that melted before lunch. Five miles north, they got two feet. It will be melted by dinner along with many MANY flooded basements.
So this morning, I took a few more pictures of orchids — a third purple one bloomed overnight — and fed the birds. Then, I started to put things together because we were going to visit Tom and Ellin.
Somewhere just a bit east of Hartford and a few hundred yards short of Route 91, I needed a bathroom. Bad. Now. Not going to wait. We pulled off the road and found a building — I think it was a medical building — but it looked like it would have plumbing. Sure enough, it did. Phew.
I was very pleased that we so quickly found a place I could go — until I tried to get up from the john. It was one of those very low-to-the-ground ones. The same kind we finally got rid of. I couldn’t get up. If my knees are higher than my butt, I’m stuck. Eventually, I managed to stand up and move on out, but I couldn’t believe I couldn’t get up.
Outside, got in the car, and we tried to retrace our path. We hadn’t gone a quarter of a mile from the exit, so it should have been easy. Except there were no signs.
This is a New England thing. When we were in San Francisco, I remember being astonished that they have signs that not only tell you where you are, but where you will be. What a concept!
New Englander are deeply suspicious of people who don’t know where they are. If you don’t know where you are, why are you here? They sometimes, grudgingly, put up signs at cross streets, but there are never any signs the tell you what road you are on. You are supposed to know that.
Would it bankrupt them to put up a few signs? Especially for entrances and exits to major highways? We eventually found signs pointing our way to 91 North. Unfortunately, we needed to go south — and there was no sign. We could see the road. Traffic was definitely moving in two directions, so surely there was an entry to the southbound lanes?
Eventually, after about half an hour of driving, we found a very small sign with a strange arrow. A couple of wrong turns later (did that arrow mean “make a left” or “a soft” left — or straight ahead? It was a left, then a soft left, THEN straight ahead.
Do they not put up signs because they are saving money? I’m pretty sure road signs are made in prisons, so I don’t think it saves more than a few pennies. There’s no accounting for it. Praise technology for GPS’s!
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Categories: #Photography, Anecdote, Humor, Roads, Travel
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As someone who still prefers old-school navigating to GPS I am always very frustrated by a lack of signs and even more so by confusing or misleading ones! I’m glad you found your way in the end 🙂
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I use a GPS when I have to which is anytime I’m in a city or near one, but if I had a choice, I prefer maps. You can’t GET really good local maps now. You can get regional maps, but when you are in a city, you need street maps — all of which are online now. Most of the people I know don’t know how to read a map. I’m a good map reader, but all my maps are useless because of new construction. And the construction is endless. They will NEVER get it done. Garry’s lived up here for more than 50 years and the work they started in 1970 isn’t done yet. By the time they get to the end, they have to start over. Hopeless. Half our bridges are near collapsing and are roads are a disgrace, but they are spending all the road funding money on round-abouts. Huh?
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I’m a good map reader too. I don’t like using my phone or GPS because it’s hard to switch seamlessly between the bigger picture of where you’re going and the detail of where you are now, which I do automatically when reading a ‘real’ map, and in the case of the GPS it keeps turning the world upside down! I want north to stay at the top 😀
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I also miss maps, but they simply aren’t making them anymore. Maybe they make them in Europe? But they sure don’t make them here.
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We can still get the detailed Ordnance Survey maps for the UK, and I think they still sell road atlases too but I’m not sure – it’s a while since we bought one.
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We have too many signs where I live, especially stop signs that are put at at “interections” that make no sense… like the three way stop at the end of my street, which serves six houses and is barely used. Why stop traffic at a side street where anyone rarely leaves from? It’s not like they police are using it to bump up city revenue with tickets, it’s just an annoyance.
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At least they aren’t putting in round-abouts at every intersection. What is WRONG with these people. No one knows how to use them. They are massive accidents just waiting to happen. I hate them. Because I never know where I’m supposed to get off EITHER. At least a stop sign, you know what you are supposed to do. You may decide to NOT do it, but you aren’t in the dark.
And THIS is how we are spending all that funding for roads. Nor repairing all the pot holes. Putting in round-abouts. This isn’t a red-blue issue either because these morons are Democrats.
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As you have posted this I assume you got there in the end.
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Yes but it took half an hour to figure out where the entrance to the road was. It was hiding.
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